


Memory Interrupted, Waiting for Highrise

by cilceon



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, The Institute (Fallout), The Railroad (Fallout), more focused on h2 than Dee for this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:08:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25672561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cilceon/pseuds/cilceon
Summary: “Hi H2.” She sat on the back of the pew with her feed on the seat next to the synth. “I’m Wanderer and that over there is Deacon.” Wanderer hitched her thumb towards the lit lantern in the corner of the church. Her newly acquired partner didn’t respond and if he made a gesture, she didn’t look back to see it.The man next to her wrung his hands and stared into them. “I-I’m H2-22.”She hummed a soft laugh. “Yeah, I know silly."
Relationships: Deacon/Female Sole Survivor
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Memory Interrupted, Waiting for Highrise

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to draw out the conversation between H2-22 and Wanderer than it was in game so tada! Deacon's playing watch dog, most of this one is focused just on H2  
> (works in this series aren't in any order!)

“Hi H2.” She sat on the back of the pew with her feed on the seat next to the synth. “I’m Wanderer and that over there is Deacon.” Wanderer hitched her thumb towards the lit lantern in the corner of the church. Her newly acquired partner didn’t respond and if he made a gesture, she didn’t look back to see it.

The man next to her wrung his hands and stared into them. “I-I’m H2-22.”

She hummed a soft laugh. “Yeah, I know silly.”

Speaking to H2, she felt like she was trying to befriend a timid street cat. He looked so scared, and so very tired. It made Wanderer’s heart ache.

“Yes. My apologies.” H2 rushed the words out and she held back the urge to reach out her hand to him in fear her charge would think she’d strike him.

“Hey. There’s no need to be sorry. You don’t need to be sorry for anythin’ you say ever again.” She reached for her bag that she set on the bench earlier and began to open it. Very aware that H2 was watching every move she was making.

“Real-really?”

Wanderer nodded pulling a nuka-cola out of the bag, popping of the cap with the help of the lip of the pew. Thankfully, none of it spilt onto the floor. She took a drink from it. “Have you had one of these before?” 

“Ah, no. I’ve only…only had water.” His eyes were locked on the bottle the agent was holding out to him, filling with a childlike wonder. Wh-what is it?”

“This my friend is one of man’s greatest inventions. And even better, its real tasty.” She kept it outreached towards him and a second past before Wanderer realized he didn’t understand she was offering it to him. “Do you wanna try some?”

“M-may I?” He was almost smiling. “But what if…”

“What? You don’t like it?” She shrugged, “Then I’ll go find something even better for you to try before we get you out of the Commonwealth.”

He reached his hand out and wrapped it around the bottle as she let go. H2 held it for a moment in his lowered hands before lifting it up towards his mouth. “It’s staticky!”

Wanderer tilted her head to the side, staticky? “Oh yeah, its carbonation. There’s not as much as there used to be but it’s not so bad is it?”

H2 shook his head as he watched at the glass, “No. It’s wonderful.”

“You can have the rest of it, I don’t mind.” She clasped her hand in her lap as she spoke, glancing around the ruined church around her. Had Wanderer been here _before_? She couldn’t remember. She tried to picture the ceiling pieced back together, the pews in neat rows. A rug here, a picture frame there. Windows filled with stained glass, sunlight shining through them. She shook her head slightly, H2 noticed.

“Did I make a mistake?” Oh no, there was an edge to his voice. She had worried him.

“Why would you say that? I just got lost in my head is all, I have a habit of wandering.”

“Is, is that why that’s your name.” He lifted the bottle to drink more from it.

She smiled with a shrug, glancing at Deacon who was leaning against the wall in the corner still. His arms were crossed as he looked out the window next to him, she couldn’t decern if he was paying attention to them or not. “That would really explain a lot, actually. Can I ask you something?”

His back straightened slightly, “From what I've been told it's probably safer if I don't say anything. I don't want to put you in any more danger.”

“That's really sweet of you each too. But you don't have to worry about that kind of thing.”

“Synths are expected to behave... like machines. You await instructions. You execute instructions. You perform basic self-maintenance. Anything else is considered defective. And then the SRB comes.” He noted her confusion and elaborated, “They're the ones that watch us. To make sure we're not defective. To make sure we don't run. Synths that get noticed just disappear. I don't know where they go.”

Wanderer bit her lip, fidgeting with her hands. “Way back when, before the big war happened, there were a group of people from a different country, some had lived here for generations. A lot of people didn't like them and if you were caught supporting them or protecting them in anyway a similar thing what happened. I understand that kind of fear H2.” She wasn’t sure how far she should continue for, nit wanting to confuse the synth with the _hey I’m over two hundred years old_ thing. “People would just go missing in the middle of the night or be hurt really bad simply for existing, for saying what was right.”

He nodded his head slowly, “the scientist mentions the Great War once in a while but I never knew what it was about or when it was.”

“it was about two hundred years ago and honestly I'm not really sure what it was about either. The scientist?”

H2 perked his head up, clarifying “Y-yes. At least that's what we called them. My only interaction with them was to receive orders on what to clean.” His shoulders slumped with disappointment on not being of more help with his explanation. “I would acknowledge my task and occasionally ask for necessary clarification. But that's really it. I heard there was a concourse above the tunnels. It's huge, big, and _green_.” He grimaced, a look of sadness seeping into his eyes. “But they're watched more carefully by the scientists. Mr. Stockton said very few synths from that section ever escape.”

Wanderer lifted her hand up slowly so he could stop her if he wanted to, gingerly she set it on his shoulder. Was this the first time someone had touched him? With the way his eyes widened, and a smile ghosted over his faces, she supposed it was. “Well it’s not gonna be like that for much longer. We’re going to get all those people out. I promise.”

“You guys are all… well, no one's ever stuck their neck out for me. I wanted to thank you. This world is… overwhelming. But people like you make me feel better about coming here.” He turned the nuka-cola in his hands as he continued. “You really. You really have no idea how much I appreciate all of this.”

Wanderer rubbed small circles on his shoulder with her thumb, reassuringly. “It’s our pleasure.”

“The only time I spoke to anyone was to acknowledge scientists' orders and very rarely to other synths. I've talked more in the past few days than I have my entire life.” H2 chuckled at the end of his words, he didn’t quite believe them.

She gave the man’s shoulder a light pat then withdrew back into herself, “Soon you can talk all you want, heck you can whistle and sing. Nothing’s going to be able to stop you.”

“Sing…” He repeated slowly, a new thought forming in his mind. “I’ve never heard someone sing before I heard the radio Stockton has…”

“Hate to brake up the party you two,” Deacon finally speaks from his post by the window, his arms still folded, eyes not leaving the street outside, “But looks like its time to get a move on.”

With a nod to each other, H2 and Wanderer stood to join her partner by the doorway.


End file.
